The StartX Files: Word to the Wise: gwp - page 2

The Paradox of Being Cool

October 2, 2001

By
Brian Proffitt

This week's word processor it actually the application that prompted this little
rant. gwp, the GNOME word processor that used be be called XWord (not to be
confused with Xword, a crossword compiler for X), is one of those applications
that needs to be compiled. No RPM or DEB packages here, kids. Just pure tarball
and a session with gmake is all that's needed. Or so the enclosed directions
indicated.

After moving a few .sh files around and confirming that I did indeed have gnome-print
and libxml on my SuSE 7.2 install, I was finally able to get gwp to compile
error-free and running.

To call gwp the GNOME Word Processor, which is what the acronym means, seems
a bit generous. gwp was originally a part of the Hungry Programmers project,
a collection of software that includes Lesstif. Somewhere along the line, gwp
got pulled into the GNOME Project, presumably to enhance the GNOME Project's
productivity tools. At least, that's what it says on the gwp Web site.

When you try to find gwp on the GNOME software map, you will find it buried
not within the Productivity category, but within the Miscellaneous section,
along with 142 other assorted applications. Hardly an auspicious location. It
makes me wonder, frankly, just what being pulled into the GNOME Project means.
After all, it's no secret that AbiWord is the star of the GNOME Office suite,
and there seems to be no mention of the gwp application anywhere on GNOME's
Web site. In fact, the GNOME Web site cheerfully refers you back to the Hungry
Programmer's site for downloading the software. (The solution to this Mobius
Loop is to visit the Hungry Programmer's FTP
site.)

Part of the problem here may be in the dual nature of the gwp application itself.
At first glance, gwp's most likely counterpart is seemingly gnotepad, Kedit,
or WordPad (in the Windows realm). And for that kind of functionality, gwp can
serve you well. It has a clean interface for font management and paragraph alignment
and it is just the thing to pop off the quick note or two.

Where the real power of gwp is supposed to comes in is with its capabilities
to produce documents in its XML-based native file format. Using XML (eXtensible
Markup Language), gwp can move beyond the traditional typesetting methodology
of creating text documents and into a structured-document format. In structured
documents, chapter headings are always given the same style, based on the fact
that they are chapter headings. Looks become secondary to the structure of the
document.

Does gwp pull its XML alter ego off? Sad to say, no. Style controls are not
at your fingertips on the interface and I kept getting a consistent set of errors
when the fonts tried to load. Some deep research on this problem came up with
a three-year-old message on a mailing list that recommended a switch to Debian,
which I thought was a bit cynical to say the least.

Nor does it look like gwp will be enhanced in the near future. The last update
of the application was in 1999, with no sign of activity in the near future.

There are some indications that gwp still lives on in one form or another.
Hints have been found that gwp's XML capabilities may be getting some new life
in the Bonobo component model, if only to work with Gnumeric's XML-based file
format.

gwp appears to be one of those many Linux applications that got off to a fair
start but was then co-opted by a larger product and essentially removed from
the software realm for the purposes of using it for parts. This is one of the
consequences of working with a notoriously free software environment--one that
we see every day. I would have liked to see what would have come from continued
development on gwp. As a documentation specialist, the world could always use
more XML tools.